A work group consisting of members of the Office of Admissions and Recruitment, the Office of the Registrar, the Graduate School, and the Division of Information Technology has drafted its recommendations on how to align the many campus tools that use student data with updated institutional guidelines on legal sex and gender.
After a six-month review of the ways the University of Wisconsin–Madison uses legal sex, gender, pronouns, and last name in use data, the group is recommending a variety of changes to existing processes and systems, plus clear campus-wide guidelines to shape potential implementations.
Highlights
The series of recommendations includes creating formal campus guidance on the use of and access to legal sex, gender, and pronoun data; updating the flow of information between the Student Information System (SIS) and both upstream and downstream systems to ensure alignment and consistency; expanding “Name in Use” (formerly Preferred Name) to allow students to set the first, middle, and last names they would like to use; and encouraging distributed campus systems to also implement the recommendations.
A continued effort
This effort builds on years of work done across campus and within the Division of Enrollment Management to ensure records match and affirm students’ identities while complying with myriad data reporting requirements.
Two years ago, UW–Madison Preferred Name was
rebranded Name in Use to avoid the implication that a name a student supplied was a casual preference rather than an authentic identity.
Early last year, the RO
rolled out the ability for students to choose whether to display their legal name or name in use on their diplomas.
Over the years, OAR added Preferred First Name, and then First Name in Use, to its event registration and request for information forms; that data then integrates into CRM (Salesforce). All CRM, Eloqua, Visit Bucky/Event, and mailed communications, as well as event name tags, use the student’s First Name in Use.
OAR continues to build on this work, adding additional clarifying language on how a student’s First Name in Use will be used in communications. The team also continues to evaluate ways to use First Name in Use for official communications and those sent from SIS.
Next Steps
The work group’s recommendations will now be circulated to the Data Governance Council, campus admitting offices and stakeholders and forwarded to DEM Leadership for review and comment.
If approved, the work group would look toward implementation and establishing a timeline for other campus partners to roll out similar changes.